The present invention relates to a floor textile, and more particularly to a cleanable dirt control textile which may be used for mats and for runners.
Mats are generally used in access ways where people tend to brush or scrape their feet in order to prevent carrying of moisture and/or dirt, accumulated on their footwear, into other areas of the premises. Normally these mats are located in areas of high pedestrian traffic, such as doorways. similarly, runners (for example, long carpets in hotel corridors) have to cope with high pedestrian traffic.
Mats or runners may be produced as roll goods from which individual mats or runners can be prepared. Generally it is preferable that mats and runners have the appearance of conventional carpeting. In this market a rustic enhanced surface is required which ensures lasting rigid fibres whilst retaining an acceptable appearance. It has previously been proposed to provide floor textile material having the general appearance and feel of carpeting, but which allows for improved cleaning and may have the added feature of having a dirt scraping effect.
British Patent Number 1527622 relates to a carpeting material which comprises pile or tuft fibres which comprise yarns of first carpet fibres along with second fibres or filaments which are not part of said yarns and are stiffer than the yarns and can act as dirt scrapers.
It is desirable that floor textile material of this kind should be capable of being thoroughly cleaned for example, by washing. In British Patent Application Number 2279247 it was stated that the form of materials disclosed in GB Patent 1527622 created a problem because, during washing the stiff fibres tend to be washed out of the carpet material.
British Patent Application Number 2279247 was concerned with solving this problem and disclosed a method for forming a washable scraper carpet including the steps of bringing a length of the scraper floor textile material into contact with a corresponding length of un-cured rubber material, applying heat to the un-cured rubber material for a short period at a temperature between 80.degree. C. and 120.degree. C. to enable the rubber viscosity to reduce to a level where the rubber material can flow round the stiff fibres, and applying heat and pressure to the floor textile material to enable the rubber material to laminate the carpet fibre material, so as to be cured, and to bond to the mono-filaments and form a backing.
The method described in Patent Application Number 2279247 overcomes the problem of stiff fibres tending to be washed out of the floor textile material during laundering, but provides a method which is complicated, requires high temperatures for operation, and cannot be directly substituted into conventional methods for making carpet material.
The present invention aims to overcome the disadvantages with the prior art.